IEEE 802.11 based wireless and mobile networks also called Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) have experience rapid growth. WiFi is a mechanism that allows an electronic device to exchange data wirelessly over a computer network. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, tablet, or digital audio player, can connect to a network resource such as the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (65 ft) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspot coverage can comprise an area as small as a single room with walls that block radio signals or a large area, as much as many square miles, covered by multiple overlapping access points. A wireless access point (WAP) connects a group of wireless devices to an adjacent wired LAN. An access point resembles a network hub, relaying data between connected wireless devices in addition to a (usually) single connected wired device, most often an ethernet hub or switch, allowing wireless devices to communicate with other wired devices.
The various IEEE 802.11 standards provide for 14 possible channels distributed over a range from 2.402 GHz to 2.483 GHz with each channel being 22 MHz wide. The various IEEE 802.11 standards call for periodic channel scan cycles over at least a majority of the 14 channels to allow for communication handoffs between access points. Scanning can be divided into active and passive scanning. During an active scan, a station (STA) broadcasts a packet requesting that all access points (APs) in those specific channels impart their presence and capability with a probe response. In a passive scan, the STA listens passively for the AP beacons containing all necessary information, such as beacon interval, capability information, supported rate and other parameters associated with the AP.
A multirole device allows a user to operate the device in a multirole mode, where the device can act as both a station and an access point. The emerging desire for increased connectivity usage employing single multirole devices requires support of wireless local area network (WLAN) concurrent multirole operation on two bands/channels by a single Baseband processor. Therefore, the multirole device will switch between providing resource allocation in a station mode and an access point mode. However, when acting in the station mode, the multirole device is required to do a channel scan to search for other access points to allow roaming. The channel scan over at least the majority of available channels can consume a great deal of time, which can result in a lost connection between the multirole device and a connected device being serviced by the multirole device when the multirole device acts as an access point in the access point mode.